”A new Estonian-Swedish identity” : An ethnological study of the magazine Kustbon as an arena for mediation and negotiation of Estonian-Swedish identity:

”A new Estonian-Swedish identity” ­– An ethnological study of the magazine Kustbon as an arena for mediation and negotiation of Estonian-Swedish identity: The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate how the magazine Kustbon constitutes an arena for the mediation and negotiation of Estonian-Swedish identity. Kustbon (Coastal inhabitant) is a magazine published by the Estonian-Swedish cultural association Svenska Odlingens Vänner (Friends of Swedish Cultivation). The magazine has since its beginning functioned as a link for the Estonian-Swedes as a group. It has survived for over 100 years despite various setbacks and different regimes that prevented the publication of the magazine. The material for this thesis consists of the magazine's issues between the years 2001 and 2017. I analyzed them using theoretical concepts such as: identity, ethnicity, diaspora, cultural heritage and imagined communities. As methods of analysis, I have used cultural analysis and discourse analysis. Through them I have been able to show how the texts in Kustbon have reproduced various notions of Estonian-Swedes in relation to Swedes in Sweden (or “rikssvenskar”) and thus communicated a community inwards and distancing outward. I have used theoretical concepts such as identity and ethnicity to analyze the foundations on which the imagined community is created. In the analysis I show the importance and role of Estonia in the magazine's various texts, and how the country can function in different identity forming processes. I have used the theoretical concept of diaspora to discuss the group’s relationship to both Estonia and Sweden. Finally, I have analyzed how recurring historical themes and stories are written in Kustbon, and how these stories work to legitimize the Estonian-Swedes' position and group identity. I also discuss identity creation through modern technology and how genealogy and DNA tests are recurring themes in Kustbon. Furthermore, I discuss how Kustbon writes about their and Svenska Odlingens Vänners problems with recruiting new members and the underlying factors that could lie behind these problems.